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Littleton, developer negotiating over sewer ties

By Hiroko Sato, hsato@lowellsun.com

Updated:
12/09/2012 07:15:13 AM EST

LITTLETON -- The town is negotiating with Omni Properties, the developer of a 190-unit affordable apartment complex proposed off Great Road, for a deal that could bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars in municipal revenue in exchange for sewer-access easements.

Selectmen are expected to ask Town Meeting goers in May to approve easements for Omni Properties to install sewer lines under Surrey and Grist Mill roads, which are public roads. The easements would allow the Concord-based developer to hook up seven single-family lots along those roads to a private wastewater treatment system the company plans to create for the affordable apartment complex called 15 Great Road, which is located just south of the lots. Omni hopes all of the homes that it will develop in the neighborhood bordering Acton and Westford will be able to share the wastewater system. In addition to 15 Great Road, Omni's projects include the development of those seven Surrey and Grist Mill roads lots, six other lots on Grist Mill Road and a 19-lot subdivision adjacent to the 15 Great Road complex.

Omni will seek permits for 15 Great Road under the state's affordable-housing law Chapter 40B. Other homes will be conventional single-family homes. Grist Mill Road lots can have sewer connections without easements because they abut 15 Great Road where Omni will build the wastewater system.

Six of the seven lots that require easements are on Surrey Road.

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The town took those lots in possession for tax title some time ago. The draft agreement between the town and Omni stipulates that if Town Meeting grants easements, Omni will pay the town $250,000 for these six lots plus all the back taxes. Omni or any developer that succeeds Omni's Grist Mill Road seven-lot project also will need to pay 8 percent of the gross sale price for five of those lots. In addition, Omni or any developer that succeeds Omni's 19-lot subdivision project must pay 4.25 percent of the gross sale price of the lots. These payments, based on the gross sale price ,will be made each time a lot is sold with a finished home.

Omni first proposed 15 Great Road in April 2011 as a 200-rental unit affordable housing project. A number of abutters have expressed their concerns about the project's impact on the neighborhood character, traffic and town resources in a series of public meetings. Omni's final plan will incorporate its agreement with neighbors, according to Town Administrator Keith Bergman. The proposed number of units has since then been reduced to 190, of which 142 would be three-bedroom units and 48 one-bedrooms under Omni's tentative plan.

All of the 190 units will be deemed affordable under state law Chapter 40B because they are rental units. In ownership 40B projects, the law requires only 25 percent of the units be set aside as affordable.

Omni's project is good news for the town, because the ratio of affordable units to Littleton's entire housing stock will rise to 13.97 percent. State law allows developers to bypass local zoning laws in towns and cities that do not have 10 percent of housing stock considered affordable. Littleton's affordable housing ratio stood at 8.45 percent as of September.

Omni has said sewer connection to the conventional single-family development lots on Surrey and Grist Mill roads would make the properties more valuable, resulting in higher tax revenues for the town. Omni's document used in its presentation before the Zoning Board of Adjustment earlier this year also shows how the cost of the wastewater treatment system can be lowered by having both the 40B and subdivision projects share it to increase the number of users.

Omni has said all these projects, when completed, would generate $733,000 in annual tax revenues for the town. The calculation was based on the assumption that the 40B project would have 200 units.

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